Digital Square RFA #2024-076

 III.        Project Description

A.      What we are looking for 

PATH will provide grant support for technology companies and consortiums to make enhancements to digital tools that are already in use in multiple countries for the management of family planning (FP) and other health supplies to improve the last-mile functions and capabilities of those tools. PATH anticipates subawards for one to three applicants for up to 12 months each. PATH anticipates that each subaward will be in the range of US$75,000 to US$200,000.

B.      Project Background 

In pursuit of our Mission: connect health leaders with the resources necessary for digital transformation, Digital Square offers a new way to invest in digital health—providing a space where countries and members of the global community can gather to think big and do good, together. By convening government officials, technological innovators, donor and implementation partners, and others across borders and boundaries, we can grow possibility into reality by focusing on our common goal: connecting the world for better health.

Digital Square’s work supports three result areas: 

1. Alignment and co-investment: Digital Square helps to identify promising investment opportunities and provides operational support to streamline procurement. 

2. Global goods: Digital Square promotes the development, adoption, and reuse of global goods, and helps increase their availability, adaptability, and maturity. 

3. Regional and country systems: Digital Square helps elevate country priorities and strengthen regional and national capacity. 

C.      Project Scope

Objective of the RFA:

Digital Square seeks applications to improve access to family planning (FP) and other health supplies in remote and underserved areas. This will be achieved by enhancing digital health tools that are already in use in existing implementations across multiple countries to improve the availability, delivery, or dispensing of FP and other health supplies, or the collection, analysis, or use of data on health supplies and supply chain at the last mile. If the existing implementation is within the public sector, government approval should already have been obtained. If the existing implementation is within the private sector, government approval is not a requirement. 

For the purposes of this RFA, the last mile is defined as communities where people live as well as any point which provides family planning supplies (including condoms) to clients (e.g., public and private sector health clinics, pharmacies, drug shops, community health workers, home delivery services, vending machines, etc.).

Key Requirements: To maximize real-world impact, the applications must: 

• Focus on existing tools:

  • Applications must focus on digital health systems or tools that are currently deployed or in the process of implementation in countries, with requisite authorization or approval from the relevant government ministries for public sector use.

  • Implementations of the digital health systems or tools should be active in more than one country.

  • Digital health systems or tools not currently in active implementation will not be considered. Furthermore, digital tools that are active, but show very little usage will not be prioritized.

• Health, family planning and last mile relevance:

  • Existing implementations must include at least one, but preferably more than one, of the USAID FP/RH Recipient Countries listed here: Countries | Family Planning | Global Health | U.S. Agency for International Development .

  • The digital health systems or tools must be used for/directly benefit family planning products and may also be used for/directly benefit other health products.

  • The proposed enhancements must specifically target the last mile of the supply chain or health system. While they may also provide benefits or support to other levels, priority will not be given to enhancements that primarily focus on upstream elements of the supply chain or health system.

• Demonstrate impact:

  • Clearly show how the proposed investment meets a specific need for increasing access to family planning and other health supplies at the last mile and what the expected impact would be.

  • Provide a plan for measuring the impact of the investment (see section IV below for details/examples).

• Funding limitations:

  • The subaward will not fund activities to initiate or conduct pilot implementations.

• Evaluation priority:

  • Preference may be given to digital health systems or tools classified as Digital Public Goods^[1] or Global Goods^[2], particularly those with in-country buy-in, though applications are not limited to open-source systems or tools.

Focus Areas for Enhancement:

Applications should focus on enhancing and optimizing existing digital health systems or tools within FP supply chains to ensure improved availability of FP and other health supplies at the last mile. The proposed enhancements must specifically target last mile processes or functions.

The following are examples of potential funded enhancements, though this is not an exhaustive list:

• Use or incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) functionality/features to optimize existing last-mile solutions.

• Innovations in delivery and pickup mechanisms (e.g., apps for local courier services to deliver FP and other health supplies to clients).

• Integrating FP applications with public- or private-sector supply chain logistics systems or other relevant systems to optimize availability of FP supplies at the last mile.

• Enabling interoperability with public- or private-sector supply chain logistics systems or other relevant systems (e.g., health management information systems (HMIS)).

• Improving last mile distribution planning, distribution routing, or dispensing to clients for FP and other health supplies.

• Enabling better data collection, analysis, or use at the last mile for improving access to FP and other health supplies.

• Enhancements to systems supporting maternal, newborn, and child health services to support improved FP service provision.    

• Solutions addressing unstable power and connectivity issues to improve digital infrastructure for FP and other health supply data systems.

This opportunity is ideal for organizations with proven digital health tools ready to expand their impact on family planning and other health services at the last mile.

D.     Proposed Project Timeline

 PATH anticipates subawards for one to three applicants for up to 12 months each. As part of Digital Square's due diligence, we will conduct pre-award evaluations of all shortlisted candidates. In addition to project-specific deliverables based on individual scopes of work, PATH will require applicants to provide, at minimum, quarterly narrative and financial reports to support their work.

IV.          Scope of Work and Deliverables

A.        Scope of Work

 The application must prioritize improving the effectiveness of existing digital health systems or tools at the last mile of the FP supply chain, with enhancements targeted at the last mile that maximize real-world impact of one or more current implementations. The application must i) demonstrate that the investment addresses a clear need; ii) must describe how the impact of this investment will be measured; and iii) must demonstrate that it meets all of the requirements described above. While not restricted to open-source tools, we encourage the adoption of digital public goods and global goods.

B.        Deliverables 

The deliverables of this RFA should at minimum, include:

Deliverable 1: Enhancements to existing digital tools

• Evidence and documentation of the improvements made to existing digital health systems or tools and where these were, or will be, implemented/rolled out.

• This will vary according to the improvements proposed but may include recorded demonstration of the enhanced functionality, links to Github code repositories, updated technical and user documentation, interoperability workflow specifications, implementation plan describing how the improvement has/will be deployed and rolled out, etc.  

Deliverable 2: Plan and reports on implementation metrics

• A comprehensive plan to collect baseline and endline data to assess the impact of the investment. This plan may leverage or align with the existing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework of the implementation or routine data use metrics within the existing tool/system.

• Documentation of metrics agreed upon with PATH and USAID in the project scope, such as:

  • Number of users adopting the enhanced tools or measurable increase in data use/users post enhancement of the tool.

  • Reduction in delays or stockouts at the last mile.

  • Improvements in supply chain efficiency and delivery times.

  • Improvements in data accuracy and data availability that demonstrably improve FP supply chain planning and forecasting.

Note: PATH and USAID will work with the vendor to include realistic metrics, or targets for those metrics, that can be captured and analyzed within the project timeline. For example, the results may not have to be statistically significant but show progress towards specific, agreed upon metrics. To this end, the vendor should propose metrics that they can measure within a reasonable time and, ideally, are already routinely measuring and using for their own optimization/improvements.

Deliverable 3: Documentation

• Comprehensive user and technical documentation for the enhanced digital heath systems or tools. Examples of relevant documentation may include, but are not limited to system architecture, installation guides, interoperability workflows, user guides, training materials for end users and system administrators, etc. 

Deliverable 4: Knowledge sharing and dissemination materials

• Communication materials that highlight the enhancements and their impact, to be shared with global health and digital supply chain communities. Examples of communication materials are blog posts, webinars, social media content, or case studies.

 The submitted application must follow the requirements outlined in:

• Section V. Application Requirements – Technical (limited to 10 pages (excluding Optional Attachments described in Section VIII)),

• Section VI. Application Requirements – Cost,

• Section VII. Risk Assessment Evaluation.

[1] https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/registry

 [2] https://globalgoodsguidebook.org/global-goods/